Author Archives: Brenda Bell

Stitch Patterns

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I’m finally getting around to loading my collection of stitch patterns into DesignaKnit 8. Since I’ve done the work, I decided to make them available for others to use.

You’ll find them on my new downloads page.

Machine Knitting: How To Make A Garter Bar Hanger

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I got inspired by one of Diana Sullivan’s videos where she shows you how to use a garter bar to shape a neckline. I fell in love with the technique because the results are superior to using hold position or binding off, but I kept thinking I could improve on the use of twist ties to hang the garter bar on the gate pegs.

And so, the jewelry wire garter bar hanger was born.

What you’ll need…

2 3″ pieces of copper jewelry wire — somewhere around 18 to 22 gauge
something to help you form a small ring about the size of a drinking straw

What you’ll do with it…

Make a loop in the center of the wire

Make a loop in the center of the wire

Insert the two ends through two prongs on the garter bar

Insert the two ends through two prongs on the garter bar

Bend the two ends to form hooks

Bend the two ends to form hooks

Trim the ends so the hooks are about the same size as the ring

Trim the ends so the hooks are about the same size as the ring

After transferring stitches to the garter bar, insert the hook with the prongs facing away from you and drop the rings onto the gate pages between the corresponding needles.

After transferring stitches to the garter bar, insert the hook with the prongs facing away from you, and hook the rings onto the gate pages between the corresponding needles.

Wicked Easy Pork Loin

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Weekends were made for crockpot cooking. It’s the one time when you can actually sit down and enjoy a leisurely meal, but who wants to spend a lot of time preparing it? Crockpot to the rescue.

What you’ll need…

1 3-4 lb. boneless pork loin (not tenderloin — they’re not the same thing)
1 pkg. Superior Touch Crockery Gourmet Seasoning Mix for Pork
1 can Campbell’s Condensed French Onion Soup
2 cans water
course black pepper
dried herbs (optional)

What you’ll do with it…

Place the roast fat-side down in the bottom of a crockpot.
Mix the seasoning mix, soup and water with a whisk.
Pour the soup mixture over the roast.
Sprinkle on a liberal dose of pepper and herbs. Don’t add salt… the onion soup has plenty.

Cook on low 2 hours.
Turn the roast fat-side up and baste.
Continue cooking on low 5-6 hours more, basting every 2-3 hours.
Let it rest on a cutting board for 10 minutes before cutting.

Serve it au jus with the liquid straight from the pot or use the liquid to make gravy if you want something a little thicker.

If you don’t want to worry about turning the roast, start it fat-side up… but I think it turns out better if you turn it and baste it.

Hot Tip For eBay Sellers

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All those people watching your listing that has a starting bid hundred’s higher than what you could buy it for new? Or for 500% more than what it’s worth?

We’re not watching because we’re interested in buying it. We’re just curious to see if there’s someone out there stupid enough to pay that much for it.

Oh… and relisting it for an even higher price after getting no bids the second or third time… well, that just makes you look really, really dumb!

Late 2006 MacBook Pro, MacBook Air SuperDrive, VMWare Fusion and 32-bit Windows XP

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The basic gist is that they don’t play well together out of the box. You can make them work if you’re willing to do a bit of fiddling and if you’re not afraid of the OS X command line.

The first problem is that Apple decided that the new MBA SuperDrives should only be used in MacBooks that didn’t come with a factory-installed optical drive. You’ll actually encounter two different issues

The first has to do with whether the MBP will actually recognize the drive. You can solve that issue by following the instructions at Use the Apple external SuperDrive on (almost) any Mac. In a nutshell, you need to edit /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist and set the empty element to mbasd=1. The file should now look like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>Kernel Flags</key>
<string>mbasd=1</string>
</dict>
</plist>

If your version of the file already has text between <string> and </string>, insert a space after the existing text, then insert mbasd=1.

and the other has to do with whether you can use it to play a DVD.

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL830